Our story
This house was here first
I'm Neus. My great-grandfather, Joan Palerm, built this house at the end of the 19th century. Four generations on, we're still here. Since 2006 we have shared it with anyone who would like to get to know it.
The name
How it got its name
Many of you have asked me why it's called Sa Vinya d'en Palerm.
Sa Vinya is the vineyard in front of the house, the one you've just seen. It's more than fifty years old. Palerm is my father's family name, the family that has lived on and worked this land. Choosing this name was our way of honouring those who came before us.
For years my father made his own wine from those grapes. Today, because of his age, most of them are sold to people who make their own, and we keep a little back so we can go on making ours.
Eight hectares
The land
The earliest deeds to the house date from the late 19th century. Ever since, this land has been in my family, and my family has lived from it: my great-grandparents and my grandparents were farmers, in an Ibiza that still lived off the land and the sea.
Change came in the sixties, with tourism. Many families on the island, mine included, went to work in it. But the farm was never abandoned.
We still look after the fig, carob, almond and olive trees. We keep sheep and hens, which roam freely around the fields. There was a time when there were cows and pigs too.
The agroturismo was my father's idea: a way of keeping the farm going.
My father, between my grandparents.
Joan Palerm
The house
It was built by my great-grandfather, Joan Palerm. My grandfather had the same name, and so does my father.
The old house is preserved almost exactly as it was: the walls, the layout, the beams of Ibizan sabina. One window was enlarged; the small ones at the back are just as they were.
The five rooms were made where the animal pens and storerooms once stood. S'Olivera was the cowshed and still has its stone walls. The beams in the rooms are sabina too, but brought from the mainland: in Ibiza the tree is protected, and it hasn't been possible to fell it for many years.
We didn't want to recreate a traditional house. We wanted to keep the one we already had.
Joan Palerm, my great-grandfather.
From the farm
Breakfast
Some of what we grow makes its way to the breakfast table.
We make our jams with the farm's figs, oranges, apricots and quinces, depending on the season. The olive oil is ours. So are the tomatoes and the orange juice. The eggs come from our hens, and in summer there's watermelon and melon.
We make kefir every day and serve it in small glasses.
Our water comes from our own borehole. In Ibiza it's a scarce resource, and we ask you to help us look after it.
Who looks after it
This is us
When I say "we", I mean three people: my father, my mother and me.
My father looks after the farm and the vineyard. My mother, the gardens. I welcome you.
We try to carry on what others began: caring for the house, the trees and the land, so that this remains, above all, a home.
My father and his granddaughter.
Ibiza Savinya Healings
Another way of caring
My family has always cared for the land. I've added another way of caring, this time for people.
It's called Ibiza Savinya Healings. I studied qigong in Barcelona and have sat exams several times in China. I learnt sound therapy with Tibetan singing bowls from a Tibetan master in Dharamsala. I lead most of the sessions myself; for massage I nearly always work with professionals. They're not included in your stay. They're there for anyone who would like them.
The holm oak, beside Sa Bellotera.
Neus
The house is open from April to October.
It's me behind this button. I'll get back to you within 24 hours.